How often should you send an email newsletter?

The frequency is a problem to which it is very difficult to find the right answer. How often can you send an email newsletter may depend on various reasons. If you send too often you can become irritating for your subscribers and you risk getting a lot of spam complaints, and if you send too rarely you lose the contact with them. So, in this case, if you get less spam complaint, your subscribers might forget about you.

Generally, the recommended frequency starts from once a month to once a week and also the most suited frequency for your business depends on the frequency that people buy your product. For example, for a publishing website you can send a newsletter more often, maybe even daily, but it is not the same for a car brand.

The frequency problem starts when you don’t know the preferences of your subscribers – too often will make them hit the spam button, that’s why you should establish when you send your email newsletters keeping into account their preferences. Below you have some suggestions of ways to establish the best frequency for your emails.

1. Find out their options
The surest way to establish the best frequency of a newsletter is to find out your subscribers option right from the start, using the subscribing form. Offer your subscriber the possibility to choose how often to receive news from you in his inbox. You could include a box in the subscription form to ask the subscribers to set the timing of the newsletters they will receive.
2. Ask for their opinion in a survey
Find out the preferences of your subscribers about the frequency of your newsletters. If you already have a list and you didn’t include the frequency option in the subscription form, a survey could be a good way to find out their opinions.
3. Test
The frequency of your emails affects mostly the open rates and the click rates of your campaigns. You can test the frequency by dividing your list into segments. And then send your newsletters with a different frequency to see how the subscribers respond. Study especially the open rate and the click rate.

4. Let them choose
Even after the subscription you can give the possibility to your subscribers to choose the right frequency for them. In order to do this you can include a link in your messages that will give the possibility to choose the frequency. Or you can put this possibility in the unsubscribe page. If the reason some people want to unsubscribe is the frequency, they will set it not to be disturbing. This way you make sure you are not losing subscribers because of the frequency of the emails.

Setting the right frequency is a difficult mission in email marketing, and the purpose of it is to avoid the saturation of the subscriber. Once resolved this matter concerning the comfort of the user, many indicators will be increasing.